Grey's heterosexual AM role

Last night's Grey's Anatomy finally debuted a heterosexual AM role. The completely uncompelling title character, Meredith Grey, brings home a South Asian guy from their regular bar. After their one-night stand, she kicks him out (as she has done for her past one night stand, including Patrick Dempsey). The guy Steve, played by Sunkrish Bala, later appears at the hospital, since he remembers that Meredith works there.

I got really nervous when it was revealed that he had an erectile dysfunctional problem and Dr. Bailey correctly implied that the most likely explanation was the abuse of penis pills.

But Steve stuck to his story and was ultimately vindicated--he was suffering from a tumor which caused his perpetual erection. Meredith's character treats him poorly--in her typical self-absorption, she is mortified that she has "broken his penis", and once he makes it through his ordeal, she does not pursue a relationship with him. After all, she's still stuck on Patrick Dempsey's married character. This isn't a knock on Steve's character, Meredith is just a self-absorbed ass whose self-pity blights the screen for a (thankfully) shrinking number of minutes each episode.

Sadly, this likely means that Bala will not be returning for future episodes. That's a shame, he was written and portrayed quite empathetically, written as a sexually competent male of Asian descent (a character rarer than unicorns on network TV) and got positive reviews on many of the show internet forums. Also, it should be noted that the character's name: "Steve Murphy" suggests that the role was written for any actor and a choice was made to cast a person of Asian descent in the role. Good stuff.

I'm thankful that the last two episodes have featured positive portrayals of men of Asian descent.